The present invention relates, in general, to a toilet and an odor exhausting apparatus for such toilets, designed to quickly suck odor from the toilet bowl to a chimney pot installed on the rooftop while relieving one""s bowels so as to quickly expel the odor into the atmosphere through the chimney pot and, more particularly, to a toilet and an odor exhausting apparatus for such toilets, with a cavity having a plurality of odor suction ports and being defined in the seat of the toilet, a hollow connection pipe having an odor inlet port and being set within the tubular hinge joint of the seat, and a tubular shaft being axially set within the connection pipe and communicating with a chimney pot through a vertical pipeline.
1. Background Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, conventional toilets are provided with a flushing mechanism designed to flush a toilet bowl so as to remove excrement while or after a user relieves one""s bowels. However, such a conventional toilet is not provided with any means for sucking odor of excrements from its bowl, and so it regrettably allows a diffusion of odor of excrements from the bowl into the atmosphere within the limited space of a water closet until the toilet bowl is flushed. Of course, the diffused odor of excrements may be, thereafter, expelled into the atmosphere outside the water closet through a motor fan or a ventilation grille provided on the sidewall or the roof of the water closet. However, such conventional toilets are very inconvenient to users since the toilets force the user to suffer the diffused odor during defecation or urination. In order to offset such diffused odor within the limited space of a water closet, some people use an aromatic yielding a fragrant aroma. However, the aromatic merely offsets the diffused odor, but cannot radically such a diffusion of odor from toilet bowls, and so the users have to suffer such diffused odor during defecation or urination. It is thus required to propose a structurally improved toilet provided with a means for removing odor of excrement without allowing a diffusion of odor of excrements into the atmosphere within the limited space of a water closet while reliving one""s bowels.
2. Disclosure of the Invention
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a toilet and an odor exhausting apparatus for such toilets, which is designed to quickly suck odor of excrements from the toilet bowl to a chimney pot installed on the rooftop without allowing a diffusion of odor into the limited space of a water closet during defecation or urination, and which thus quickly expels the odor into the atmosphere outside the water closet through the chimney pot, and which always maintains the enclosed compartment of the water closet in a fresh, sanitary and hygienic state.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a toilet and an odor exhausting apparatus for such toilets, comprising a plurality of odor suction ports formed on the lower wall of a hollow seat. The odor suction ports of the seat communicate with the atmosphere outside a house through an outlet port formed on the hinge joint of the seat, an inlet port of a connection pipe, an inlet port of a tubular shaft, and a vertical pipeline. Therefore, the toilet, provided with the odor exhausting apparatus, expels odor of excrements from the toilet bowl to the atmosphere outside the house through the suction ports and the vertical pipeline during defecation or urination.
In the present invention, the connection pipe rotatably connects the seat cover to the hinge joint of the seat, and has an inlet port. The inlet port of the connection pipe is selectively aligned with the outlet port of the seat so as to communicate with the interior of the toilet bowl through the cavity of the seat. The tubular shaft, having an inlet port, is set within the connection pipe, and communicates with the atmosphere outside the house via the vertical pipeline. During defecation or urination with the seat cover being fully opened, the toilet provided with the apparatus of this invention automatically and forcibly expels odor of excrements from the toilet bowl to the atmosphere due to suction force generated by rising air within the vertical pipeline.
In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the toilet comprises: an openable seat hinged to the top surface of a toilet bowl, said seat consisting of a cavity defined within said seat, a plurality of odor suction ports formed on the lower wall of the seat so as to suck odor from the toilet bowl into the cavity, and a tubular hinge joint provided at the rear end of the seat for hinging the seat to the toilet bowl, and communicating with said cavity through an odor outlet port; a hollow connection pipe rotatably set within the hinge joint, and having a first odor inlet port, with an externally-toothed engagement part being formed at each end of the connection pipe; a seat cover coupled to said connection pipe by two internally-toothed connection rings externally engaging with the externally-toothed engagement parts of the connection pipe; and a tubular shaft defining a cylindrical passage therein and having a second odor inlet port, said tubular shaft being axially and rotatably set within the hollow connection pipe, and rotatably held at opposite ends thereof on the toilet bowl by two support brackets mounted on the toilet bowl, with a vertical pipe extending from the passage of the tubular shaft to the atmosphere outside the house.
The odor exhausting apparatus for toilets according to the preferred embodiment of this invention consists of an openable seat and an openable seat cover, comprising: a cavity defined within said seat; a plurality of odor suction ports formed on the lower wall of the seat so as to suck odor from a toilet bowl into the cavity; a tubular hinge joint provided at the rear end of the seat for hinging the seat to the toilet bowl, said hinge joint communicating with said cavity through an odor outlet port; a hollow connection pipe rotatably set within the hinge joint, said connection pipe having a first odor inlet port, with an externally-toothed engagement part being formed at each end of the connection pipe; two connection rings formed on said seat cover so as to couple the seat cover to said connection pipe, said two connection rings being toothed on the internal surfaces thereof and externally engaging with the externally-toothed engagement parts of the connection pipe; a tubular shaft defining a cylindrical passage therein and having a second odor inlet port, said tubular shaft being axially and rotatably set within the hollow connection pipe, and rotatably held at opposite ends thereof on the toilet bowl using two support brackets mounted on the toilet bowl; and a vertical pipe connecting the passage of the tubular shaft to a vertical pipeline extending to the atmosphere outside a house, thus automatically expelling odor of excrements from the toilet bowl into the atmosphere outside the house due to suction force generated by ascending air within said vertical pipeline.
In the present invention, the toilet may have a conventional construction. In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the seat of the toilet defines a cavity therein, with a plurality of suction ports formed on the lower wall of the seat so as to suck odor from the toilet bowl into the cavity of the seat. The above seat is attached to the toilet bowl by a tubular hinge joint, with an outlet port formed on the joint so as to allow the joint to communicate with the interior of the toilet bowl through the cavity of the seat. The outlet port is formed on the sidewall of the joint, and may comprise one port or a plurality of ports.
In addition, the connection pipe is rotatably set within the tubular hinge joint of the seat, and is coupled to the seat cover so as to be rotatable along with the seat cover relative to the seat. In the preferred embodiment, such a connection of the seat cover to the connection pipe is accomplished by a toothed connection of the internally-toothed connection rings of the seat cover to the externally-toothed ends of the connection pipe. However, it should be understood that the connection structure provided at the junction of the seat cover and the connection pipe may be accomplished by a fitting structure or another structure using a separate locking means in place of the toothed structure without affecting the functioning of this invention. On the other hand, it is preferred to form one inlet port on the sidewall of the connection pipe so as to allow the inlet port to communicate with the interior of the toilet bowl through the outlet port of the seat when the seat cover is fully opened. However, the inlet port may be formed around the sidewall of the connection pipe in such a way that the inlet port of the connection pipe always communicates with the interior of the toilet bowl through the outlet port of the seat regardless of the angular position of the seat cover relative to the seat.
The tubular shaft is held at opposite ends thereof on the top surface of the toilet bowl by two brackets mounted to the top surface of the toilet bowl. This tubular shaft thus acts as a hinge shaft for both the seat and the seat cover, and acts as a passage for odor. That is, the tubular shaft communicates with the atmosphere outside a house through a vertical pipeline, thus guiding odor from the toilet bowl to the vertical pipeline so as to finally expel the odor to the atmosphere. In the present invention, the tubular shaft may be closed or opened at opposite ends thereof. When the opposite ends of the tubular shaft are closed, the tubular shaft is simply held by the two brackets at the closed opposite ends. However, when the opposite ends of the tubular shaft are opened, it is necessary to close the open ends by the two brackets during a process of holding the opposite ends of the tubular shaft by the brackets. In such a case, it is preferable to form a bearing recess on each of the brackets so as to allow the brackets to hold the ends of the tubular shaft at the bearing recesses while closing the ends. As a further alternative, the tubular shaft may be at least partially integrated with the brackets at its opposite ends. In such a case, it is necessary to form an opening on one of the two brackets so as to allow the interior of the tubular shaft to communicate with the vertical pipeline through the opening.
In the present invention, the vertical pipeline may be vertically set within a sidewall of a house or may be vertically arrayed on the external surface of the sidewall of the house. In the case of a multi-storied house, for example, an apartment house, it is preferable to use one of pipelines, previously set within the sidewall of the house during a building process, as the vertical pipeline. In most of conventional multi-storied houses or buildings, the pipelines extend to the atmosphere outside the rooftop, with motor fans typically installed at the top ends of the pipelines. Therefore, such pipelines effectively generate suction force therein, and are preferably usable as the vertical pipeline of this invention. When the toilets, installed on the floors of the stories of a multi-storied house, are commonly connected to such a pipeline through a plurality of horizontal pipes, it is possible to effectively and almost completely expel odor of excrements from the toilet bowls to the atmosphere outside the rooftop of the house without allowing a diffusion of odor from the toilet bowl into the limited spaces within the water closets having the toilets.